Notebook 21: Cerebus #164 page 12 & 13

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

We’re continuing our look at Dave Sim’s 21st notebook used during the creation of Cerebus #164 to 187. We’ll be looking at this notebook, which there were 260 out of 300 pages scanned, until we’ve seen every single page of it. Well, the pages scanned. If you want to see all of the notebook #21 posts to date, just use the Notebook 21 tag. 

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Last week we looked at pages 10, 11, and 12 which contain some text for Swoon and sketches of Astoria getting ready for her meeting with Cirin. Then in a post from November 2020, Astoria Goes Shopping, we see pages 13 and 14. Those pages as described by the title, do include more sketches of Astoria getting ready for her meeting with Cirin. So what is next in the notebook? 

Some dialogue for Swoon and Astoria. 

Notebook 21, page 15

The first column is dialogue for Swoon and it says:

I am your brother and yet. . .you call me “son”.

My amusement is quite nearly unbounded.

How I have. . .missed. . .your. . .fabled wit.

Ha.

Ha.

Beat.

Ha.

The text is used on page 13 of Cerebus #164 panels 2 – 5, and the sketch is for panel 4. Kind of. The text goes with panel 4 and the sketch of Swoon is used in panel 3.

Then in the middle column is dialogue for Astoria and it says:

(Astoria) This one will do fine. Now I want the skirt hemmed five centimeters above the knee.

(Shopkeeper) ABOVE the knee?!

(Astoria) Above the knee; that’s what I said.

(Shopkeeper) But. . .but what will people say?

(Astoria) About the length? Very little. They’ll be too busy looking at the slit you’re going to put on the right side up to mid-thigh.

That dialogue was originally on page 13 of the notebook, but it was a bit different then what appears above. That notebook page was labeled page 12 (of Cerebus 164), but it never shows up in the finished work. 

The final column is more Swoon and Elrod dialogue which for the most part is used on pages 12 and 13 of Cerebus #164:

(Swoon) You’ve put on weight my sister.

(Elrod) Huh? This – ah say this is just a costume son.

(looks)

(Swoon) Come, we will find you more flattering apparel.

(Elrod) We’re I say – we’re wasting time son, what about the Dawning of the Days of the Blatidae and the Promythalidae? 

(Swoon) That revolution does not take place for many hundred of centuries. It was a . . .misapprehension.

(Elrod) It’s a real knee-slapper all right.

I’m thinking Blatidae is a different spelling of Blattidae, a type of cockroach, as that is the only thing that comes up in a google search. It is also what replaced Blatidae on page 12 panel 5. As for Promythalidae, that doesn’t come back to any google results. That word was replaced with Phyllodromidae on page 12, which as far as I can find out is another type of cockroach. Talking about the end of the world, eh Elrod? Or perhaps just the Age of the Cockroach.

The next page of the notebook has a sketch labeled Cerebus No. 164 Page No. 13:

Notebook 21, page 16

But that isn’t page 13 of Cerebus #164 at all. It is page 8, page 34 of the phonebook Women. The dialogue on the notebook page:

(Storekeeper) Very nice, but of course the drop style earring is for more formal occasions. 

(Astoria) Yes I. . .I see. I’ll take it.

(Astoria) Depending on how our discussions go Cirin is either going to acede to my demands and form a coalition Cirinist / Kevillist government or she’s going to throw me back in prison to rot for the rest of my life. Sounds pretty formal to me.

That dialogue appears word for word on page 8. Well, except Astoria’s dialogue of ‘Yes I. . .I see. I’ll take it’. The sketch of Astoria shows up on the page as well. 

The next page of the notebook goes back to the Swoon and Elrod section of Cerebus #164, and while Dave has it noted as page 14, it ends up being page 12 (aka page 38 of the phonebook Women). 

Notebook 21, page 17

The dialogue we’ve seen already as it was on page 15 of the notebook. Well, we’ve seen some of it. Dave made some tweaks to what was on page 15, and it is getting closer to what was on the finished page. Kind of. The dialogue in the bottom left corner is for the crowd scene on page 13 of Cerebus #164. Though one line of it was left out: “Down with the false cockroaches”.

Next week: more Elrod? More Swoon? More Astoria? Or just some walls of text?